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Building
Blocks |
* Thanks to these great
sites for the graphics ~
what talent!
(no longer on web)
The
Building Blocks
program was developed as a Kindergarten component
of The Four-Blocks
Literacy Model
(originally developed for first grade by Patricia Cunningham and Dorothy
P. Hall).
It is a
developmentally appropriate, multilevel framework just for Kindergarten.
This structure includes the following components:
| I. |
Reading
TO
Children ~ Story Time |
* reading both
fiction and nonfiction books * reading to children daily * builds vocabulary, gives them an understanding of the structure of stories * builds background knowledge on a variety of topics * demonstrates reading is an enjoyable activity |
|
| II. |
Reading
WITH
Children ~
Shared Reading |
* teacher reads with
the children using predictable books so that the children become
familiar enough to "read along" * books are reread many times during the week with different activities that focus on different skills (concepts of print, book awareness, directionality, words and pictures go together, differences between a letter/word/sentence, predicting what's going to happen and why, sequencing events, comprehension skills, etc.) |
|
| III. |
Reading
BY
Children ~
Guided Reading |
* independent reading
of self-selected leveled books - these books are worked on together in small groups with lots of modeling and support before the independent reading time can happen * ways to read are - read by reading all the words - "pretend read" by telling the story - "picture read" by talking about the things you see in the illustrations |
|
| IV. |
Writing
FOR
Children ~
Morning Message or Daily News |
* modeled writing by
the teacher who thinks out loud as she goes through the process
of getting words down on paper * demonstrates purposes of writing |
|
| V. |
Writing
With
Children ~
Shared Writing |
* children have input
with what is being written (ideas) and suggestions on what to
write (sounds they hear) - but teacher does all the writing
[Shared Writing] * children do some of the writing - what they can with teacher filling in the rest [Interactive Writing] |
|
| VI. |
Writing
BY
Children ~
Journals |
* children write on
their own (discussion of stages of writing with encouragement to
try to do what they can to convey meaning on paper) * coached writing (teacher models and supports stage child is in; using the Word Wall, sounding out words and writing what they hear ["inventive spelling"] * writing in any stage should be shared by those who feel comfortable * Writing Center is stocked and modeled how to use the resources - participation encouraged in free time |
|
| VII. |
Developing
Phonemic Awareness
~ Rhyming |
* the oral part of
reading - hearing the individual sounds of letters and groups of
letters * manipulating sounds (changing the first letter in words like hat, cat, fat to make a new word) * segmenting sounds (hearing and separating the individual sounds in words - /c/ /a/ /t/) * rhyming (Nursery Rhymes, songs, chants, rhymes) * alliteration (words that begin with the same sound - tongue twisters) * clapping syllables * hearing the number of sounds in a word * sound isolation (what's the beginning, middle, ending sound you hear?) |
|
| VIII. |
Working With Letters
& Sounds (Phonics)
~ Word Walls |
* phonics is the
written letter or word ~ visual * letter recognition * spelling, making words |
|
| IX. |
Learning "Interesting
Words"
~ Getting To Know You
(name activities) |
* familiar words
(their names, family names, love, etc.) * high frequency words and sight words * environmental print (McDonald's, Pizza Hut, etc.) |
|
|
~ This
information was taken from
The
Teacher's Guide to Building Blocks
by Dorothy P. Hall and Elaine Williams. There are several different support materials for the Building Blocks framework for Kindergarten. Check with you local Teacher Bookstore for more information. |
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By using
this framework as a way to schedule our language curriculum throughout
the day
we can make sure that
critical components are addressed in a logical structure.
Reading and writing develop in many stages. There are many ways to
read and write.
We read faces, the weather, pictures, and yes, we read words.
We can write in a meaningful way through pictures, abstract forms and
words that others can read.
Kindergartners come with a certain amount of understanding of how print
works
(for reading or writing) - some more than others.
It is important for them to feel this year that they are readers and
writers in their own way
- it is not something saved just for First Grade!
We need to
support and encourage them a lot this year, and applaud
their approximations at reading and writing.
Remember how excited and what a fuss you made when your child was taking
their first steps?
They didn't do it perfectly - but they were praised for what they did.
With good feelings about themselves and lots of practice they really
learned to walk.
Let's do that for the children as they learn MORE about reading and
writing!
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High frequency words are words that appear most often in the texts young children are exposed to. "Out of the approximately 600,000-plus words in the English language, a small number appear frequently. Only 13 words (a, and, for, he, is, in, it, of, that, the, to, was, you) account for more than 25% of the words in print, and 100 words account for about 50%. A list of 250 most frequently used words by children make up 70-75% of all the words children use in their writing." (Phonics From A to Z - A Practical Guide, by Wiley Blevins, page 97) High frequency words therefore play an important part in early reading and writing skill development. Knowing many high frequency words is necessary for fluency in reading. While we are not striving to teach reading in Kindergarten, knowing a small group of high frequency words is valuable in pre-emergent and emergent reading development and gives young children not only the experience of making and reading simple sentences with these words and pictures, but builds their confidence and belief that they are readers. Knowledge of these words also encourages their writing attempts as they begin to write down whole thoughts rather that word lists or labels for drawings. In Kindergarten we have developed a list of words we will be working with this year, listed below. We call them our "Popcorn Words" because they keep popping up in the reading and writing we see and do in class. We do know that not all children will master this entire list, in fact only a few might. But we are planting seeds and working toward understanding the ideas of letters, words, and even sentences. Working with a group of words children can read helps in understanding such things as tracking, directionality, return sweep, one-to-one word correspondence - some of our print awareness skills. We will be learning and experiencing these words through several different kinds of fun activities, and will be referring to them often as teacher models writing and reading skills. They will be posted on our "Word Wall" and you will see them coming home in the Letter Readers as part of our Letter Work activities. The more we can use them naturally, the more sense they will make and will hopefully be retained in long term memory! POPCORN WORDS “They just keep popping up!” Sight & High Frequency Words for Kindergarten Core Words ~
Challenge List ~
Color Words ~
Number Words ~
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